The invention relates to a method and a device for protection of targets against approaching projectiles, which projectiles are provided with infrared-sensitive target finders, especially for the protection of ships against approaching rockets.
After having succeeded in developing infrared detectors of very high sensitivity, today it is possible to equip projectiles, especially rockets, with infrared-sensitive target finders, which are sensitive to the infrared radiation which is emitted by the target, e.g. a ship. The known countermeasures against radar-controlled target finder fail in the case of infrared-controlled target finders. Therefore a lot of experiments were made to find special countermeasures against projectiles being equipped with infrared-controlled target finders. Until today no effective protection was found.
Basically there are imaginable two kinds of countermeasures. The first kind of countermeasure would be to prevent the infrared radiation emitted by the target from reaching the finder of the approaching rocket. The second kind of countermeasure would be to deflect the approaching rocket from the target. It is an object of this invention to find a method and a device by means of which it is possible to influence the infrared finder of a rocket approaching the target, which emits an infrared radiation, in such a way that the rocket is diverted from the target.